Nuclear waste plan for Southern Utah resurfaces

With the winds of political change blowing around this year's gubernatorial race, a Washington County commissioner is trying to revive interest in a high-level nuclear-waste dump in southeastern Utah.

Commissioner Alan Gardner recently conducted an unscientific survey of 13 people, and 12 thought the issue of sending nuclear waste to their neighbors in San Juan County should be studied further.

"Our whole intent is to bring the issue up in order to look into the possibility and do a study," Gardner said.

Former Gov. Mike Leavitt and his successor, Gov. Olene Walker, have been adamantly opposed to any high-level nuclear-waste facility, including a temporary storage site in Tooele County on Goshute tribal lands. When San Juan County approached Leavitt about the possibility of sending the waste there, Leavitt categorically refused.

Gardner, along with San Juan County Commission Chairman Lynn Stevens, are trying to revive interest in the proposal, suggesting a nuclear-waste facility on state school trust lands could generate huge amounts of money for cash-strapped schools.

In January, Stevens wrote to the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration requesting that SITLA take a look at the proposal.

"SITLA has the opportunity to step forward at this time and recommend storage of the spent fuel rods in an area that is much less populated than the Goshute site, and at the same time be able to receive significant funds for the school trust fund," Stevens wrote.

SITLA officials are willing to consider it.

"We understand that before anything could happen to bring nuclear waste into Utah, it would have to be approved by the governor and Legislature," SITLA director Kevin Carter said. "That has been a formidable stumbling block. But if that climate changes and it is not against the law to do that, we would certainly be willing to take a look at it on trust lands. Our board of trustees is interested enough in this potential that they have asked us to at least be prepared to look at the issue if it becomes a reality."

San Juan County leaders have wanted a nuclear-waste dump as long as anyone can remember, years before the Skull Valley Goshutes began negotiating with nuclear power companies to store 44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel rods on the reservation.

But any proposal to store high-level nuclear waste in Utah is bound to inflame public passions.

Rep. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, tried to float the idea during the 2003 legislative session but was hit with a firestorm of opposition.